French journalist expected to leave China over reporting

If her press card is not renewed, she can not apply for a new visa, which would force her to leave the country.

Her essay “flagrantly championed acts of terrorism and acts of cruelly killing innocents, triggering the Chinese people’s outrage”, said the foreign ministry statement.

The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China said it was appalled by Beijing’s move.

Gauthier on Saturday called the accusations “absurd”, and said that emboldening terrorism is morally and legally wrong.

Hong said China paid great attention to the relationship between fighting terrorism and protecting human rights and would ensure people’s legal rights are protected.

“All this is rhetoric”, she said. It said it was “appalled” by the decision, and it expressed concerns that Beijing was using the accreditation and visa process to threaten foreign journalists.

Many foreign scholars and rights groups say that what’s happening in China’s far northwest is less about global jihad than China’s suppression of its Uighur population.

Ursula Gauthier acknowledged that the attack was bloody, but “the Baicheng attack had nothing in common with the 13th November attacks”, she wrote according to an English translation of her original article.

China says it faces a growing threat from militants and separatists, especially in its unruly Western region of Xinjiang, where hundreds have died in violence in the past few years. The next day the Paris terrorist bombing happened, and the day after that China said they stand in solidarity with France.

Nicholas Bequelin, Amnesty International’s Regional Director for East Asia, tweeted, “Expulsion of French journalist @ugauthier for Xinjiang article opens a new era for foreign media in China”. Both attacks were carried out by the Uighurs, a Turkic minority comprised mainly of Sunni Muslims. Jaime FlorCruz, the Beijing bureau chief for CNN recalls that, not only did foreign journalists need government permission to leave the capital, but official minders made it hard to interact with ordinary Chinese.

Instead of making seemingly righteous comments on China’s anti-terrorism legislation, Washington should spend more time reflecting on its counter-terrorism strategies and policies so as to make positive contributions to the global campaign against terrorism.

China’s Foreign Ministry hit back, saying technology companies had nothing to fear and the USA had no right to intervene.

“Why is terrorism in other countries called terrorist actions, but it turns out to be ethnic and religious issues in China?” ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said at a regular news briefing on December 2. Chan tweeted, “Gauthier was told she could stay in China if she publicly apologized for… yep, you guess it: hurting the feelings of the Chinese people”. He wants her to apologise for her words.

Gauthier said her chief editor had written the Chinese Embassy in Paris and that she had written a long letter in which she refuted the characterization of her article, to no avail.